The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Aquilegia scopulorum
Also called Rock Columbine, Blue Columbine
Utah columbine is a small, blue-flowered perennial from the mountains of Nevada and Utah, grown mainly in rock gardens. Its key needs are sharp drainage and cool conditions, since it dislikes hot, humid summers.
Aquilegia scopulorum, also known as rock columbine or Utah columbine, is a species of plant in the buttercup family from Nevada and Utah in the western United States.
The rock gardening expert and writer Robert Nold praised rock columbine writing, "In its time, in full flower, this is possibly the most beautiful plant in the rock garden." Similarly to other alpine species grown in gardens, it is planted in deep scree, a mixture of equal parts of small gravel, sand, and garden loam. However, it is adaptable to a large range of soil textures provided they are well drained, even clay soils if occasionally dry. Rock columbine is intolerant of hot and humid summer conditions. In garden conditions it will rebloom with a smaller number of flowers in the summer after a main bloom in the spring. It is hardy in USDA zones 3–8.
Initially it was grown by Carleton Worth in the 1950s, but was only available as a hybrid with other species by the 1960s. It was reintroduced to the plant trade by Panayoti Kelaidis and Gwen Kelaidis in 1989.
Rock columbine definitely grows in the states of Nevada and Utah. The NRCS also lists it as growing in Wyoming and Colorado, but according to FNA the Wyoming record is doubtful. According to the NCRS it grows in seven counties in central and western Utah. In Nevada it is recorded in Clark, Nye, Lander, and White Pine counties. They grow at elevations between 2,000 and 3,500 meters (6,600 and 11,500 ft).
Aquilegia alpina · Aquilegia amaliae · Fan Columbine · Aquilegia apuana · Aquilegia aradanica · Aquilegia aragonensis · Dark Columbine · Aquilegia atrovinosa · Atwood's Columbine · Aquilegia aurea · Aquilegia ballii · Aquilegia baluchistanica
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aquilegia scopulorum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
